Gygax designed the original D&D game with Dave Arneson in 1974, and went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels.
“I don’t think I’ve really grokked it yet,” said Mike Mearls, the lead developer of the upcoming 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. “He was like the cool uncle that every gamer had. He shaped an entire generation of gamers.”

It’s been decades (!) since I gathered with friends around a table to play D&D. Now a cultural icon of my youth has passed.

Neither have I. It sure would be fun, though. We played using the original rules; we considered AD&D to be “Dungeons and Beavers.” We ended up with our own set of rules that worked quite well but don’t line up with much of anything else out there.